rockbot

Again Rockbot was removed from the Google Play Store due to “impersonating” other apps.I don’t use Mega Man or Rockman names, nor do I say I am Capcom or this is an official Megaman game.I try to avoid to use any copyrighted material, and when I found one left from the past, I launch an update and remove. Yes, the game is suposed to LOOK like Megaman, be similar to it, but with different graphics. Even with that, some people just look at Rockbot and call it Megaman in purple and flag the game as copyright infrigement without even looking at our FAQ that states we want they to tell me if they find a problem.

People think this is just the game image. Look at the arms and legs! Similar is not the same nor a theft.

Not so similar when you put them side by side

I am quite sad. Look, I make this for free, but sometimes it is just not worth the effort in the face of internet trolls. I am tired of this. If Google don’t tell me what they found wrong, don’t want to remove the suspensional, that is it, Rockbot will be dead in the Play Store. I will keep distributing the APK and put it on Amazon app store, but not on Google anymore. And you know what? Thinking better, I will just make an special version for Google and trolls, only square colors like Atari 2600 games. No graphics at all.

Here is a new release for Rockbot1, with lots of small touches, bug fixes and an incredible new soundtrack by Simone Bernacchia.Some builds are still being built, so please be patient. Also, my Playstation 2 crashed a while ago, and the replacement I got, just also died, so there is no way I can test the build for this platform right now. Also, there seems to be a problem in OpenDingux with sound not playing, I will investigate when I have more time.

This should be the last update in Rockbot1, unless some really nasty bug is found. From now on, only Rockbot2 will receive any attention.

Release notes are as follows:

New soundtrack by Simone Bernacchia!

Enemy projectile not moving if he is not on-screen

Bring back classic stage selection

Bring back castle stages intro

Dash shadow effect

AI: fly+dash to player

ANDROID: fix crash in boss credits

Font outline for better reading

New door object for middle-stage bosses

New graphic for stage-boss teleporter

Show commands (< > ENTER, etc) on manual’ bottom

Separate manual parts between game-specific and general

Got weapon music playing two times, should not play on colors celebration

First and foremost, I want you to please notice, Upperland Studios is not an actual company, nor we gain any money from the game right now. Rockbot is a homebrew game, literally; and I have a daily job because making free games does not pay any bills. Check the FAQ for further details.

Now about the recent development of Rockbot 1 and 2, sadly I need to inform there is none being done currently.

This year is by far one of the most complicated in all my life. In short, I was fired from a job I loved, the new job is good, but I’m still learning about the system I’m developing for, so it takes a lot of energy from my person. There were other family problems, and during this very complex time my older brother passed away. A lot more happened after that, so I had no mindset to work on Rockbot anymore.

I am still recovering from the series of unfortunate events and, meanwhile, I am focusing in renovating my apartment. With the help of my dear wife, I painted the room that we use as an office for our computers and games because I got new furniture to hold all my game consoles, DVDs and some toys I do collect. I will now paint the bedroom, that will receive new furniture to store bed linen and other stuff, so my house becomes more organized, as I also organize my emotions and toughs.

I hope you please understand that, this is why Rockbot’s development is not a priority on my life right now. Once I again feel the passion for developing games, I will resume work, rest assured. But for now, I will take a break.

So, lots of people believes Upperland as a great game development studio, with professionals goind forth and back. Sorry, but the game only can’t be called a garage one, because I live into an apartment, so I have no garage at all, nor a car.

But, to satisfy people’s curiosity, I’ll show a few pictures of the environment where I code and develop Rockbot.

Megaman is always an inspiration, as you can figure by the Funko Pop on the image.

This kind of work environment is good for creativity.

The room is full of toys, those are collections mine and from my wife.

To preserve memory and performance, I’ve been cutting several features from Rockbot, such as having two independante backgrounds with parallax.Even so, I could not assure that the device that is running the game could reach 60 frames per second in a constant way. So, looking how PS4 games are now adding setting much like the PC games, for user picking between performance or graphic quality, I’ve come with a new setting:

With this config, the ame will try to adjust as better as possible to run well, if using the low-end option, or with extra effects, using the high-end.

Remember I’ve said I removed the second background layer? Well, with high-end graphics mode, I will get it back, but as a foreground; and it even includes a setting for transparency!

Other feature I plan to add in high-end graphics mode is adding a blue transparent layer over water, and more should follow.

Now, i you have an slow device like the PSP, you can pick the low-end graphics mode that will adjust the game to run in 30 frames per second instead of 60, making physics and collision detection a bit worse, but assuring game does not run slower than it should.

There are still a long road until Rockbot 2 final version, stay tunned!

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About

Rockbot is an open-source, SDL library based, game engine to replicate old style games like Megaman. It is designed to be fully ediable throught an application made with Qt library, that allows for custom graphics, weapons, bosses, enemies and level editting.
Please access our web page for more details.
The engine code is meant to be highly portable, thanks to SDL, and have been ported and tested in:
Linux, Windows, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS (abandoned), Dingux, Open Pandora and more.
Any system with SDL and 24 or 32 MB should be able to run it. Porters are welcome! To get code-code, go to out github page at https://github.com/protoman/rockbot.